Standard solid-bodied pillows in common use for many years have a number of limitations. The downward force caused by the weight of a person's head on tissue and facial skin in contact with solid bodied pillows is considerable, causing local stretching and deformation of the skin. Over a period of many years this deformation accelerates wrinkling of the skin, contributing to the visible effects of ageing.
Similarly, the outer surfaces of the ears are crushed by the weight of the head when a person using a pillow lies to the side, contributing to the incidence of bacterial and fungal ear infections, morning wax deafness, ear ache and gradual deformation and wrinkling of the pinna.
In addition, standard pillows provide uneven support to the head and neck, causing muscular strain of the neck and back, and causing general night unrest. Sleepers adopt a side or face down position during sleep in an effort to conform to the support points of a pillow, spending disproportionately little time sleeping in a supine position. This can accelerate degeneration of the spine associated with ageing, particularly in the neck region. Indeed, neck injury commonly results from improper support while sleeping. Similarly, in an attempt to match personal anatomy to a pillow, many people adopt unnatural sleeping positions with arms and hands used to provide head support, which leads to discomfort and joint degeneration, and even arthritis, in the hands, elbows and shoulders.
Finally, although a variety of pillow sizes and shapes are available, they can not be specifically customized to match an individual's anatomy and natural sleep habits.
In an attempt to address some of these deficiencies, various pillow designs have been proposed. Wang, U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,231 describes a pillow with a neck support and groves to reduce ear compression when lying to the side. However, the groves of the Wang design poorly distribute weight away from the ear, because the head and face is supported only above and below the ear. Indeed, this general lack of facial support increases the pressure on the face of the user at the few points which contact the pillow, potentially causing discomfort, skin damage and the like. In addition, the entire pillow is of a single piece, which prevents customization of the pillow by a user. Furthermore, nothing in the pillow design addresses the general formation of facial wrinkles or pressure creases from facial compression. Indeed, it seems likely that morning wrinkles would form on a sleeper's face along the lines of the grooves.
Lake, U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,728 describe a pillow with a shaped central depression. Like Wang, when sleeping with one's face to the side, this pillow redistributes weight to only a few regions of the face, potentially damaging these regions and causing morning wrinkling and discomfort. Furthermore, the pillow is not customizable.
The present invention solves these and other problems.